Friday , March 29 2024
One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.

DVD Review: Posada Carriles – Terrorism Made in USA

Written by Fumo Verde

On October 6, 1976, a passenger plane with 73 people aboard crashed into the ocean just near Barbados. Two explosions brought the airliner down, four men, CIA trained, were responsible for this heinous act. Two of them sit behind bars; the other two roam free amongst us still touting the line that they will never surrender.

Terrorism Made in USA gives us a chance to hear the other side of the story about Latin America and what dealings the U.S. had going on south of the border. Posada Carriles is the man this documentary revolves around. He was trained by the CIA on taxpayer money to keep governments of Latin America in line with U. S. interests. Carriles, along with others such as Orlando Bosch, have become in the eyes of many Latin Americans terrorists equal to Bin Laden himself.

After the Second World War the fear of communism spread further than the revolution itself. This fear and the ideas behind it worked its way to Central and South America, prompting the U.S. to secure its backyard anyway it could. Back in the early ‘50s the fear was all too real with Khrushchev pounding his fist and threatening, “We will bury you!” Bomb shelters were the latest home accessories next to televisions. There was a “Red” behind every banana leaf and they were out to invade the U.S. starting with Cuba.

This is where Mr. Posada Carriles was from. Coming from a poor upbringing, he joined Fulgencio Batista’s secret police force. Batista was the de facto ruler of Cuba from the early ‘40s until the overthrow of his government on January 1, 1959. Fidel Castro’s peasant-led revolution, “26th of July Movement,” had taken over and the communist revolution sat on the back porch of the U.S. homeland. Cubans who had worked with the Batista administration and American business were terrified that they would face severe consequences for their actions as the communists took control.

Landing on American shores, they angrily gathered on the east coast of Florida, in cities such as Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. A melting pot of hatred towards Castro brewed in the packed Latino sections of these cities, a prime incubator for soldiers of the “cold war.” Here the CIA went looking for those who wanted to fight back against Castro and his ilk. Posada Carriles was one of those men. After being trained by the CIA he was tested on the beaches of the Bay of Pigs, then he went to Venezuela where he formed that country’s police force, the notorious DISIP. Murder and torture was his trademark, and he brought this wherever he went.

With interviews from eyewitnesses and survivors of the tortures and pains inflected by Carriles, director Angel Palacios explores the horrors left in the wake of men like this who proudly exclaim what they have done, reminding us that they will not stop until Castro and his commie buddies are all eliminated. Palacios doesn’t have to uncover anything because these people think they are doing the right thing. Even if it means killing innocent people who truly have nothing to do with this political chess game. The viewer will see how people such as Carriles and Bosh operated and grew like a small army and extended hand of the United States and how the Department of Commerce created a division called the “Global Deceives,” whose sole purpose was to find out what countries were working with Castro’s Cuba financially and to undermine them.

This documentary holds nothing back, and you hear directly from the perpetrators of these crimes in their own words as they were interviewed back when they were first apprehended. This movie will get you asking questions about what our role was in the world back in the ‘50s and ‘60s and what are role is and should be today. Watching this you see how true the old saying is about one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.

Posada Carriles – Terrorism Made in USA is one for any fan of history. Facts and truths are clearly given and there is no dispute about the evils these men have done. The fact that Castro is a bastard and has killed thousands shouldn’t mean that we have to stoop to his level to defeat him. Hugo Chavez is now taking Castro’s place on the world stage and South American countries have started going socialist on us. So, these “black ops” plans for change south of the border really haven’t produced what our government actually wanted. And what happens if we start talks with Chavez and Castro, will these so called freedom fighters that we have trained and supplied turn on us? Do we have to fear another Oklahoma City bombing? Blowback is a bitch and this movie will show you where it could come from if we open up relations with Cuba again. If you are interested on how we do things in the shadow world, Terrorism Made in USA is worth watching.

Side note: Guess where Orlando Bosch was on the day J.F.K was killed? Sitting on a curb in Dealey Plaza waiting for the President’s car to come by, and Mr. Bosch was no fan of President Kennedy by any means. Hmmm….interesting.

About Gordon S. Miller

Gordon S. Miller is the artist formerly known as El Bicho, the nom de plume he used when he first began reviewing movies online for The Masked Movie Snobs in 2003. Before the year was out, he became that site's publisher. Over the years, he has also contributed to a number of other sites as a writer and editor, such as FilmRadar, Film School Rejects, High Def Digest, and Blogcritics. He is the Founder and Publisher of Cinema Sentries. Some of his random thoughts can be found at twitter.com/GordonMiller_CS

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